Another Trials Obstacle - The Gapping Bar...



A

andrew_carter

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I've been having some fun building trials obstacles today, or rather a
trials obstacle. I'm planning on making a few more of these to put them
to good use. I'm not sure how I'll brace them if I build higher ones
though.

The picture shows what's involved pretty well. I'll just point out that
the supports and the bar are not connected so it's nice and easy to
transport.

I'm thinking of screwing on another plank to the top half of the two
vertical bits of the support (connecting them). This would make it
stronger but stop you from being able to slide the bar past the support,
for example if you wanted to use the rail support application.

I really like these things. I'm looking forward to making some more and
setting them up in a line to gap between. It's only 2.30pm so I might
do that now...actually I won't build any more yet but I might play
around on them later on.

I'll do a little basic set of instructions for biulding these things
soon enough to add to my list.

Andrew


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http://tinyurl.com/2p3g7

Here's a little 1.1MB video of a couple of applications of it. Imagine
having 4 of these to play with. You could set up long curvy rails, or
gap between them at strange angles.

Lots of potential.

Andrew


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I built another one today and had a little play around on them. Ignore
that last video and if you want, have a look at this one...

http://tinyurl.com/2h3fg

I'm going to work up to doing 360's between them, and also gapping
between them hopping on the wheel...among other things. They're lots of
fun.

Andrew


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Andrew-

Those look great! I see them as a good way to practice skills on
skinnies with out having to look for convenient pre-made bars, or
risking injury by learning on something much too high. Keep up the good
work!

Also, be sure to post a vid once you get the 360 down.

Daniel


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those are pretty awesome!

Good idea with the low-skinny practicing

Do they fall apart on a bad attempt often enough to bother with trying a
fix, like a cotter pin of some sort, or is that pretty odd?


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Andrew,

I live through you. Man, do I wish I had the time to do all of this
-make obstacles, ride and practice on them, and make videos. What a
terrific creative outlet. I just don't have the time to do stuff like
what you're doing. Too much happening in this home.

Keep up the awesome work, it's so great to see your progress too.

Thumbs up!!:)


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learning some new trials myself at the mo.

those bars look really good and not very hard to make! any tips on
building? i mite build 2 the weekend

bungle


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Rod,
Thanks a lot, that's very nice of you.

Sofa,
So far (I rode for about 30 minutes on and off on them) that's the one
time they fell apart. Plus it would happen much less if I had some
woodwork skills. :) A cotter pin sort of fix sounds like a good idea,
but I'm not going to bother.

Sabin,
Yesterday I was going for 180's between them as you can see in the video
but today I'm going to go for distance. I didn't really want to put too
much stress on them yesterday as the glue hadn't set. I don't know how
much difference that will make but I just wanted to be sure. I think
last time I checked I can get up to about a 1.7m sidehop (at best) on
flat ground so it'll be interesting to see how much less this distance
will be...plus there's the landing to consider. We'll see.

Bungle,
I'll give you a few tips on building them but keep in mind that I have
no woodworking training or anything so I don't really know what I'm
talking about. Here's a little diagram.

Andrew


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It also helps a lot to have plenty of bits the same width available to
use. I put one underneath the bits I was screwing on so I could put my
foot on it and keep it in position.


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Andrew,
You say you don't have any woodworking skill, but I'd say the things you
come up with look sturdy and creative, and that's enough woodworking
skill for me.

I'm impressed. Keep those ideas coming.

David


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Andrew

Another good design. It looks like it would work well to use those
bases to make a long skinny. I would assume you'd want to use a few of
the bases in the middle section of a long skinny.

I may have to make a few of those.

Bill


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Thanks guys. Bill, if you want to use these things only for skinny
supports then I'd suggest you shorten the vertical bits by about 20mm so
they don't get in the way of your wheel when you're riding along.
Actually you could just cut a little piece that you can fit between them
to prop the rail up...then you could use them for both.

I don't think I'll leave it at the 10 minutes I spent gapping this
morning.

Sabin, I landed a 1.5m gap cleanly, then almost landed a 1.6m gap, then
went all out and attempted a 1.7m gap. I actually made the distance
cleanly, but didn't have the control on the landing and the wheel shot
out in front...it made for a great video. :) I found that the most
effective way for me to gap distances between these things was to hop
from the first one with my wheel at about 20-30 degrees and to land with
it at about 60-70 degrees. I found that I needed that sharp angle for
the landing to push the wheel out in front of me, and with the longer
distances I didn't have as much control anyway for the landings.

Here's a nice video - http://tinyurl.com/2vjyx

Andrew


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I watched your video and saw the thing fall apart so I thought of
this.
C:\My Documents\gapping bars.jpeg

I don't know if it would work or not, but that was just my thought.

David


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ahhh andrew hows your back?

just out of curiousity, how unstable are the sandwich boards without the
boards? In some of your videos, you just had two planks (35 by 70mm?)
put together with a couple of hinges. (it was only like 3 inches high).
However, it looked like it kinda skidded out from underneath you when
you jumped off of it. is it really that unstable?

-grant


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I like darchibald's idea. One problem with using that for skinnies is
that the supports come all the way up to the level of the skinny, which
can be disruptive on a skinny ride.

Andrew: Thanks for posting. Your previous skinny line inspired me to
make a skinny for myself. I improv'd, and came out with something near
what you picture here. I only had 8' (2.43m) sections of 2x4, so I made
an 8' long skinny 7" off the ground with a 3' support bar at one end so
it doesn't tip, and just some smally blocks at the other end. The
supports only come up 1" below the level of the skinny, so my tire never
hits them. I like it, because in conjunction with my front stairs on my
house and my 20" and 2' boxes, I can make a 2x4 to pedalgrab over. Try
to make a longer one (or just replace the center piece with a longer
35x70), so you can prop it up between boxes for a higher version for
pedalgrabs.

Also, when gapping to the skinny, from experience I've found that the
falls can still be pretty viscous:( (despite the short distances
involved). I was trying a line where I gapped off my bottom step on my
house about 4' (121cm) to the 2x4 and then another 3.5' to a small
platform 2" off the ground, then rotated 90 degrees and went to the end
of the line. I was pretty consistent getting to the platform, except I
always landed and flew off the back. Then I made the mistake of
scrubbing my tire on the skinny a bit far forward, and I came down hard,
and hit my shin so hard on the skinny that I got a bruise through my
armour. Lesson: on a 19" wheel, don't go outside the 3" (76mm) sweet
spot on the tire. It just doesn't work.

As for a higher version, just make the supports extend so that they form
an obtuse angle with the skinny as the vertex. For example, if you have
a 1m high gapping skinny (just imagining here, 1m is awfully high), you
should have the supports form a triangle where there's at least about
75cm extending from each side of the skinny. That ought to work.


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tennisgh22 wrote:
> *ahhh andrew hows your back?
>
> just out of curiousity, how unstable are the sandwich boards without
> the boards? In some of your videos, you just had two planks (35 by
> 70mm?) put together with a couple of hinges. (it was only like 3
> inches high). However, it looked like it kinda skidded out from
> underneath you when you jumped off of it. is it really that
> unstable?
>
> -grant *


I'm not surprised things skid. Often the forces on a gap make precious
little ground friction. My platforms skid all the time (only 2" high),
along with my skinny.


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David,
That sounds like a good solution, similar to what Sofa was thinking I
believe. So far, they have only collapsed once. If it happens much
more I might consider adding something like that but it really hasn't
been a common occurence.

Grant,
My back's fine now. :) It was one of those things that hurts initially
but heals in about 30 seconds. The sandwich boards without the boards
seem to only collapse or move around when they're on a hard surface.
They're generally fine when they're on grass. But on cemenr they do
collapse a fair bit.

gerblefranklin,
That sounds like a great setup, you don't have any photos or videos do
you? I mentioned the issue of having the rail sitting a bit above the
supports in a previous post, they really do get in the way otherwise.
Pedal grabbing on a 2x4 sounds far beyond my skill level at this stage.
I'd love to see a video of you doing it. You don't happen to have one
do you? As for those 1m high gapping bars (which do actually sound
rather tempting) you'd have to have some pretty solid angled supports
screwed in somewhere. I'd love to build some but I can't bring myself
to cut down one of my two 5m long 35x70mm planks and I'm running out of
smaller bits. What I'm going to do is learn to weld and make a series
of nice steel bits and pieces to play with...eventually.

I'm going to have another play around in about 20 minutes and do some
spinning rather than going for distance. Hopefully I won't hurt myself
this time. :)

Andrew


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Well it's not 1m high but I found a fun temporary solution...

Andrew


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